I'd say it depends. It depends on how the money is being raised and how it's being spent. One possibility is that the money is being placed with the PTO to hide it from the school district. The idea is that the district could at any time take money from one school's general account and use it for another school. To protect it from that possibility, money raised by teachers is deposited in the (independent) PTO account. That's a bad situation and could cause some significant problems if discovered -- not to mention that it creates accounting issues. If that's what's going on, I think you're better off co-opting these teacher fundraisers under the PTO banner. Ask them to support your PTO fundraisers in a major way, in return for grants to help them accomplish what they were previously doing through their own fundraisers. Chances are that will be better for all involved, including parents who won't be asked to support lots of different fundraisers -- just a couple of major, all-school ones.
- Craig
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